Marvinrobot wrote:The controller system is the Vex 75Hz. I originally wanted to get a Futaba 2.4GHz 10 channel set-up but found a better deal when the hobby took another victim and someone dropped out. The Vex is great and I can actually upgrade it to a new Wifi set up they offer. I will probably do that much later this year. I'm using 2 motor controllers Sabertooth type and they work great since they do the mix for the motor so it allows me to run on a single stick.

I was looking into the Vex wifi upgrade. I was a little confused by it. It looked like a module plugs into the joystick end and another one connects into the microcontroller end. So that should allow the two to talk to each other over wifi, but does it let a computer talk to them too? If you get the wifi upgrade you will be able to reprogram your VEX. You could do the motor mix yourself in software at that point.

I used a VEX kit for my K9 robot. I was hoping to do more robot type stuff, but the poject stalled shortly after I got him driving and looking vaugly like K9. Hopefully I'll find some time (and money) to upgrade everything on him. I'd really like to convert him to Meccanum wheels.

Andy

Last edited by Culvan on Thu Feb 11, 2010 6:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

[QUOTE=marvinrobot;35172]So I'm finally at a point where I went looking around for hoses. I know that the bronze hose is the ideal but I also saw folks use the brass hoses made by Watts. I was going to weather them using the same method as used for the bronze but I couldn't find anyone saying they had done that before. So I ended up doing the following: I filled a small sterilite tub with household ammonia and threw some pennies in there. I then soaked the hoses in the mixture for about an hour covered. When I went back a saw that a part of the hose that was sticking out of the ammonia solution was almost black...I realized that the fumes was the real trick so I pulled the hoses out of the solution and laid them across the small tub and then placed a bigger 20 gallon tub on top. An hour later here is the result:

Obviously this is still too light so I decided to do an black acrylic wash over them and now I'm fairly satisified. Here is a comparison pic.

You know, one of those fold out arms could very easily be made to work. And if you... oh lets say... put a cattle prod or something like that on there... well, no one will be robbing you anytime soon. :

rebelbuttkicker wrote:You know, one of those fold out arms could very easily be made to work. And if you... oh lets say... put a cattle prod or something like that on there... well, no one will be robbing you anytime soon. :

My only concern is astromechs have been know to have quite the libido...I'd be afraid of R2 humping an ATM if I attached a cattle prod...

here are some of my final updates...he will be ready to go for Saturday:

More updates. I've been scratch building and I'm down to only 2 parts to finish. Here is a picture on my scratch built shoulder hydarulic:

I think it goes without saying domes get dirty. After the event this past weekend I found my once shiny dome covered with finger prints. I tried to wipe it down with water but the problem is aluminum finished styrene does clean with water as a matter of fact it got worse. So I thought I would try to clean the dome by applying Rub and Buff (silver leaf) on top of the aluminum paint...I think it turned out nice:

I figure all I have to do now is carry Rub and Buff along with a soft cloth and I can keep the dome looking decent especially for longer events.

Marvinrobot wrote:You know what they say once you go R2 you never go back

TMI, Wally, TMI...

I am glad you now have a suitable solution in keeping R2's dome looking good. That's something I feel I would always be paranoid about if I got into the droid-making mood - - and I think I have enough fun watching others build their astromechs.